Uganda registered more than double bookings for airlines and hotels between August 2020 and March 2021, as part of the recovery of the tourism sector from the effects of the Covid-19 induced lockdown last year.
A study dubbed ‘Towards recovery from the impact of covid-19 on the tourism sector in Uganda: April 2021’ shows that the airline and hotels and accommodation facilities bookings doubled by end of March 2021 while bookings recorded by tour companies and operators increased eleven-fold between August 2020 and March 2021.
The study further shows that foreign tourist bookings increased faster growing fourfold from 5,628 to 21,191 between August 2020 and March 2021 while domestic tourists tripled from 21,914 bookings to 62,268 over the same period.
The tourist Bookings recorded from airlines doubled in the last 6 months rising from 1,221 bookings by end of October 2020 to 2,073 bookings by end of March 2021.
“Cancelled bookings recorded by tourism businesses dropped by eight percentage points. This implies that tourism businesses are receiving less trip cancellations of already booked trips compared to what was the case by end of June 2020,” says part of the study, adding that hotel occupancy levels in the country increased by ten percentage points by end of March 2021 to average 31 percent when compared to March 2020.
Relatedly, weekly flights within or to and out of Uganda increased fourfold by end of March 2021 rising from a weekly average of 3 flights in 2020 to a weekly average of 11 flights in 2021. This, the study says, indicates that 73% of the flights that fly to Entebbe have resumed operations.